Zoning
Re-writes & Zoning changes Township-wide
are under discussion now
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latest meeting date
WHY WE NEED OUR ZONING MEETINGS ON TV ....
Our government access channel (Comcast 43 Verizon 24 ) at
9 am, 3 pm and 9 pm should carry all the zoning, planning and
zoning rewrite meetings so the public can see what is happening
. Meetings are long & often full of other issues but we need
ALL our resources to be working . Most of you have no idea how
your neighborhood or the Commercial area near you is being
re-zoned . We need our
available resources. They have been denied since requested in
early 2006. Please ask your Commissioner to
GET THE PLANNING &
ZONING MEETINGS ON
WHAT IS BEING REZONED?
---- While some of the items being discussed will be
improvements - there are many that, in my own opinion, would
never be approved if residents knew. They would vote the
politicians out that did it. Ie: Efforts to bring many
commercial districts right up to the sidewalk (See the center of
Jenkintown, to allow heights
above the 35 feet now usually allowed . New heights will
often be 60 feet or more (see Rydal Park for an example)
--- narrow sidewalks and the residence next door to you might
just be zoned for apartment or office before you know it.
When
residents ask, these kinds of details are not shared. They are
often just told : "It's an on-going process. Nothing has been
decided" . The rewrite committee could/ should be posting a
summary of ideas so residents can see and
understand - but they have refused to even give accurate and
complete minutes .
Please
ask your Commissioner to
POST EVERY SECTION THAT THEY HAVE CHANGED ON THE WEBSITE - YOU
YOU CAN START LEARNING NOW
.
WHAT CAN WE DO ?
Now is the time for us to join our
voices. Get your neighborhood linked in - so that all can
learn the facts and be notified when meetings are coming up.
Sign up to
receive our periodic Newsloop to stay informed
Meeting Minutes - Please let us know if you would like
some of the the documents ( Maps and
Minutes) that are available to see these issues for
yourselves. Just
contact us & mention your street
____________________
WHAT ARE THE VARIOUS FACETS OF THE
RE-ZONING
UNDERWAY
TOWNSHIP-WIDE?
All info should be
checked out with your Commissioner &
if I have made any errors,
please be kind enough to
get back to me
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Prong 1
The
Old York Corridor Rd plan
-
See in particular Chapter 4
- http://abington.org/downloads/OYR/Chapter_4.pdf
4 particular nodes in this plan:
*** Noble train & The Fairway
area---(the FTD is already a horrific example of what's to come
*** Susquehanna & Old York Rd area-
***
London Center by Target & Giant -
billboards/ hotels and a host of issues
*** Roy Rubicam area .
CONSEQUENCES OF THE CHANGES
*** Increasing traffic on the busy
York Rd thoroughfare up to 17,500 trips a day
(5000 in any given area) *** Increase Commercial impact on our township in no small way.
*** Your Township is not
"building" these elements ( Hotel, Parking Garage etc
) but even worse: these are in their
"vision" for development and they are putting into place
the
zoning mechanisms that would allow for them.
By the time there is a developer at the door, it will be too
late. He will have zoning rights
Residents don't know what to protest because they can't see it .
The Old York Rd Study --- a
VERY few of the issues include :
------ p 119
rewriting our sign ordinance ?
------- p 117 - adding additional 17500 vehicle trips on Old
York Rd ? ( and that is just a very fractional
count of what is
underway in the OVERALL vision for the township.)
----- p 113 taking business FROM the mall - the same
mall that is possibly being considered for 10
years of tax abatements
for help ???? How can this make sense?
------ p 137 " if the road is 60 feet high the buildings should
be 60 ft hi " ( 4-5 stories???) "and sited right
up to the sidewalk "
--- When you increase traffic on a road and then
bring the buildings in closer
to the street, the
change that you are creating is unmistakable.
---- Take just ONE example from the
proposals - the vision presented in this study for
the London Rd /Target/
Giant shopping area
considers the possibility of a parking garage, hotel AND apartment buildings,
retail
and
twins . Consider the already numerous vacant
properties , consider that this is not a plan to make an
area
more pedestrian friendly to the
current residents - it is ADDING residents for whom no
drive to the area is
necessary. For current
residents, they would instead now have to park in the parking
garage - quite distant from
certain stores they may want to
visit. when
there are so many vacant properties where these elements could
already be built without
over-building here. Residents requests to NOT increase density
and to NOT install
parking garages ( from
testimony heard at various prior meetings ) have not been heard
.
In the
suburbs, we LIKE pulling up to the
stores where we shop. That's why we live in the suburbs
rather than a
mile or two away in
the city where
these features
abound.
----
Still no movie theater in the vision……? Is it
possible there is one coming to the Willow Grove area?
After the prior surveys where this was a very,
very frequent request, one might hope that we would have
this issue addressed.
Prong 2 Other
Commercial areas all over the Township are being considered
for changes & up-grades to more intense uses or more
varieties of usage. A couple of areas might be somewhat downsized. It would be difficult to even try to
calculate the traffic impact and other consequences of these
many changes. They will happen over a period of years - but,
again, the
zoning changes that will allow them are happening right
now.
Prong 3 Residences near
Commercial Zoning rewrites are being discussed in some residential areas where the residential might meet up
with high level commercial use. But instead of tree lined
buffers or other changes to the commercial entities, what is being discussed is the creation
of "transition zones" where the houses nearest the construction
might be rezoned to allow offices, or condos or apartments or
twins or other "light
commercial" use. The theory seems to be that by going from
heavy commercial to lighter commercial, it will create a buffer
zone or transition zone. This will, in my opinion, only
increase commercial presence and actually bring some form
of commercial closer to the properties further in, rather
than "buffering" anything.
Prong 4 Rewrites
to the zoning of all residential areas (R1 thru R4 )are
under way. We have not been able to get a summary -
but for instance, possibly Municipal Complex might be
added as a "right" rather than a conditional use - so you might
have no say in their ability to build next door to you. And will
trucks with advertizing be allowed to park on your street....?
And possibly "overlay" zones like Land Preservation
Development overlays would be rewritten and allowed to increase
residential density on (one section of) a property.
Theoretically this would leave large green areas for group
or public use - but sometimes these get sold off or given a
variance later on, when memories have faded or no one is paying
attention. So these various changes are important to people -
and they should know in time to understand and have a say in the
FORMULATION process of the zoning changes - in a time
early enough for the word to spread, for neighborhood
discussions and for them to inform themselves before they are
brought to a hearing to speak.
WHAT DO WE MEAN BY ZONING RE-WRITE
?
The discussions underway to re-write our zoning code do not mean
someone will be bulldozing your house. Instead, the zoning will
take place now and the actual changes will take place over a
period of years. When your neighbor sells, will the new
owner have the right to build an office? Residential districts
through-out the township R1, R2, R3 or R4 may find themselves in
an overlay area- or with slight zoning changes that they barely
notice. But if, for instance, they don't appreciate trucks with
signage
parked on their street, and if that is one of the changes being
proposed, they should be aware this is happening. Their comments and
feelings should be helping Committee members in the process.
After changes have been formulated and agreed on by the
committee, it may be more of a challenge to convince the
committee what the constituents actually want. And many neighborhoods next to
commercial areas have had red-lines drawn around them and
are also under discussion for changes. In the words of the head of
the Re-write Committee these reflect “an
ongoing process examining all possibilities to deal with the
consistent conflict between certain residential communities and
commercial/institutional/industrial areas throughout the
township”. But if your
house is in a conflict or "transition area" that might
be re-zoned from strictly residential to allow offices,
condos, apartments or another higher density
use, you might not appreciate the manner in which the conflict
is being resolved. And I personally am perplexed by watching
another area be developed where residential is being purposely
sandwiched between the commercial uses . Are we creating
new conflict zones?
If our current vacancies ( like the
Baederwood Shopping Center, the Williard) were filled
to their allotment - our traffic would increase . Additional zoning
allowances will create another level of traffic
entirely. Will a heavily trafficked
throughway might have you sitting a lot longer in traffic to get
to the soccer game . Or will your sunny open suburban street
have 5 story buildings built right up to the sidewalk -
more of a city feel? Yes of course we want better shopping and
nicer districts. But how much? And how do our voices get
recognized? I don't recall seeing a movie theater yet? Is
one in the plan? And what
are the consequences of the stronger commercial "voice" .
Originally I was told they were trying to
possibly finalize this by September 09. If so, the main hearings then would likely be held in July & August
when the majority of residents are on vacation or cherishing
summer time with
their kids. These are well-known "low turn-out" months.
Commissioner Kline tells me that there is no timetable on the
process other than as soon as possible. The
Committee has been at this for over a year & the Commissioners
have had the R1 through R4 draft for several months now, allowing them time
to absorb & question. But residents will have to get up to
speed quickly when they finally are notified &
nearly no one I have spoken to has a clue yet that this is
underway.
WILL I BE NOTIFIED ? WHY DIDN'T I KNOW ABOUT THIS?
Yes, of course , there is
notification to residents and an opportunity for them to speak
in all Township affairs - and especially in ones that might
change their property rights. Nobody is claiming there are
or were "secret meetings" or "conspiracies"
--- words thrown into the mix to
discredit those getting the word out. But the open, public
meetings have been going on since at least March of 2008 and virtually
no one I have met in the township was aware of them. That
includes folks whose houses are under discussion to be rezoned
or who live adjacent to areas that will be re-zoned rather
dramatically. These are
complicated issues. They involve many facets of Zoning &
Planning that Township personnel & Commissioners have gotten up
to speed on little by little- and already were much more
conversant in. Understanding the overall, interactive
consequences of this is a task that will not be easy for
residents. In addition, should they want to unite their voices,
that is a task that takes another great length of
time - and is rarely accomplished unless a few dedicated people
invest fully to do it. Further, residents comments are limited
and they rarely understand the whole issue, so precious comment
time is often spent asking questions. And by waiting until
the whole comprehensive township wide plan is "unveiled",
a situation will be created at the presentation meeting where no
individual section will be focused on, diluting the
ability to make a certain area's desires really known. Changed
meeting times & dates, etc etc - there are a thousand reasons
that residents in each area should have been informed more
specifically about what was going on in the early stages, when
effecting a change in the process is much more likely. The
Eminent Domain meetings in Roslyn that were going on since early 09 or
before, might have been of much more interest to those who might
stand , in the overall scheme, to have their properties re-zoned
as part of such an overall "revitalization".
It is really important to get as many informed
as possible, to know when the meetings are and how to unite your
voices. And please share back with me anything that you learn
that should be on this site.
WHERE ARE THE SOME OF THE AREAS UNDER DISCUSSION ?
The 4 main areas of the Old York Rd Corridor improvement
are :
Noble train & The Fairway area---//// Susquehanna & Old York
Rd area-- //// London Center by Target & Giant -////
Roy Rubicam & the Crestmont train area
Then these are largely the areas where residences meet
commercial that were red circled
1 Abington Library area Old Orchard
Canterbury Woodcrest Harte hilltop Wyndale Baeder Rd
2
Ardsley between Mt
Carmel, Jenkintown & North Hills Ave - Cricket Tennis Maple
Central Hamel Elm
3 Ardsley Station area Jenkintown Road ---Maple
Hamel Monroe Harrison Jackson
4 Willow Grove - Blinds To Go area Moreland
Old York
Strafford Rockwell
5 Willow Grove - Moreland Road near Fleming
Osborne Lukens Coolidge
6 Willow Grove Mall area Old Welsh Reservoir
Rubicam and Easton Road
7 Willow Grove - Crestmont Station area
Ferndale Roy Rubicam Hamilton Tremont Rockwell old Welsh
8
Abington Hospital Area - Highland and Wheatsheaf from
Susquehanna to Old York Rd -
Keith Rockwell key woodland Horace Wheatsheaf Susquehanna
9 Hollywood Shady Lane Berkeley San
Diego Gibson Redondo Los Angeles Fox Chase
10 Glenside Jenkintown Rd & continuing
up Easton Rd to Tague Cross
& a little more
11 Glenside Keswick area Oakdale Woodlyn Fairhill
12 Elkins Park Hospital area- Township Line Holme Barry Perry Runner Ray
Church Susan Rolling Hill
13 McKinley Cyprus Lime West Cadwalader Tupelhocken
Huron Odessa high school Road
14
Roslyn - Avondale Radcliffe Lafayette Independence Colonial
Brookdale Woodland Arlington Norwood
Kenderton Bradfield
-- and they have just voted to take the property on
Easton Rd from an elderly
owner by Eminent Domain to make a nice
"Town Center " in this neighborhood.
15 Abington - from Susquehanna to the hospital along old York
Road- Guernsey Eckard Horace
16 Rockledge -Cedar Road Henrietta Huntington Pike old Huntington
Pike Longstreth
17 Jenkintown - Township line Gordon Lenox Wyncote
+ ......Additional Maps
exist of :
Glenside -Easton- Menlo /Mt Carmel area -
Glenside Geneva Weldon
Willow Grove - Ferndale & Rockwell near Welsh
and there are 4 maps thus far of business districts in my
possession
_______________
WHY DOES THIS MATTER ?
The impact of these many, many changes will undoubtedly change
our township dramatically over the course of the next decades
--- and residents should understand & have
a reasonable opportunity to have input. These changes are
underway now - and I do not know if there is any possibility of
reversing them once they are in place.
Do residents know that the York Rd Plan suggests that where
streets are 60 feet wide, buildings should be 60 feet wide (4-5
stories ) and that is is being recommended that they be
built right up to the sidewalk in places along Old York Rd .
That would create a "city" feel - and in fact would prohibit any
widening or addition of a public transportation lane when the
traffic became oppressive years down the road . In my opinion
bonuses should be given to those who move back from the road and
allow for adjustments to that busy corridor. There is much talk
about "undeveloped areas" - well that's why some of us
like living here - because the (old) zoning didn't allow for
every square inch to be developed. We don't all want the zoning
changed. I don't think these little details, that make so
much difference, are being highlighted.
If you live in a neighborhood
"under discussion" to be a
transitional area, you
may feel the greatest impact as the zoning changes might affect
what is all around you in the coming years. In 10 years
will your area still have a "residential" feel - will it
still be largely a neighborhood of homeowners or will it
be landlords and tenants ? How are some residences
being chosen for transition zones because residential use
conflicts with commercial, yet just down the road residential
units are being PLANNED to be smack in the middle of the
commercial.
All residents of this
Township should be aware of the impact these changes could have
on traffic, noise, infrastructure improvements, the need
for increased services, and perhaps most importantly of all the
increased Commercial voice in our Township that may be heard
above the Residential voice . Residents are the voters.
But Commercial interests have an over-representation on our
Boards including the Economic Development Board which voted in
the consideration of the abatements. The residents
are the ones who voted the officials into office to safeguard their
interests. But all too often we see Commercial interests
being put ahead of our own. This is our
Township- and taking care of it requires our attention.
Traffic changes on the Old York Road Corridor alone might see
an increase of 17,500 trips a day. It may be impossible to
calculate the additional trips from the many, many other changes
being proposed elsewhere along Old York.
Who is paying for street lighting, sidewalk repairs,
landscaping , wastewater treatment up-grades, etc . You
might be surprised to see some of the expenses that residents
have borne. And who might be getting up to 10 years of tax
abatements, leaving residents to shoulder more than their share
of the burdens of the services received by newly improved
businesses (in certain areas that fall under guidelines of the
LERTA laws?)
HOW DID THIS COME ABOUT ?
In 2007, a Comprehensive Plan update was completed & approved
for Abington Township.
In conjunction with that and in conjunction with other
development issues on-going in the Township, ( like the more
than 10 million dollar Old York Rd Revitalization Project), your Commissioners
and others are re-writing zoning codes, theoretically to meet
the needs expressed in the new Comprehensive Plan.
(But, as I recall, there was no real input from neighborhoods on
that either - not of the significant kind that we are trying to
establish - where your voice is the one that guides the
"authorities" rather than the other way around.
There were opportunities for residents to speak but little was
done to gather communities to have a say in their futures
So, in the Comprehensive Plan,
they may have identified a shortage of multi-family
dwellings and apartments in Abington, or senior units. So they are aiming to
amend that --- by simply allowing for more units than we
currently have . Between you and me, the lower density is one of the treasured
features appreciated by residents of our township. Many of us moved here because of the
lack of congestion and the green space and the beautiful single
family homes in strictly residential neighborhoods. There are
plenty of "mixed use neighborhoods" right in the
Northeast. But we chose Abington instead.
WHAT'S THE LATEST UPDATE
6-23-09Zoning Ordinance Rewrite Committee
meeting - many of the transition zones were discussed -
Commercial areas continue to be discussed as desirable when
mixed use including residential is considered while other areas
are considered "in conflict" when residential is in close
proximity to commercial. One reason offered to
explain this was that these new "planned" units will be
occupied by people who "know" they are buying in a commercial
district. But didn't the others know that they were buying "next
to" a commercial district --??? That knowledge didn't create
harmony........ Other residents in attendance questioned
why we were changing residential areas to commercial, however
light , and increasing commercial areas when we had so many
unoccupied and unutilized.
6-3-09 Presentation to Commissioners by the hired consultants of
the Old York Rd Corridor study -after which residents spoke We
offered some of the "downsides" that had not been shared, and
residents asked about the plans on their properties and
registered strongly against rezoning their residential
properties. While I was accused of offering misinformation,
I asked again for help understanding whatever had been
misunderstood . Some residents were given "indirect
answers" about whether their house was or was not being
considered for re-zoning. Misinformation and
false accusations were made from the dais . For example: a woman from Rydal did NOT
write the anonymous letter . The Hospital Rep who sits on the
zoning re-write Committee DID, in fact, make comments about
expansion. (They can be seen in the minutes which I will gladly
email you.) The Old York Rd. plan DOES include
specific recommendations about re-zoning, contrary to one
Commissioner's assertions. And the answer that should have been
given to a resident who asked if his house was under
consideration for rezoning would rightfully have been a
simple "yes" . That's just a smattering of what came from
the dais. No lies or slander were spread by those of us hoping
to get the message out. We were alerting people that this was
going on, & advised that it might take a while to get up to
speed - which included running all information by their
Commissioner - as this site also directs. We all have to
recognize that at times people misunderstand, or our words may
not be chosen carefully enough not to have more than one meaning. But when
Commissioners bash the messenger, while simultaneously leaving
their residents uniformed ( or misinform them) about meetings &
details that might be important to them, we
have a problem that needs to be fixed.
Still have received no summary of the R1 -R4 changes.
6-2-09 Mr. Matteo has promised a summary of the R1 - R4 changes
so we can discern what's new about the Draft Revisions.
The Zoning Rewrite Committee today discussed form-based &
hybrid zoning and talked about using two test areas
as examples of this - among other things.
6-1-09 My Commissioner - who earlier said he would not share with
me the info needed to understand the R1 through R4 changes until
AFTER the meeting, is now suggesting he may not do so at all.
5-23-09 I got the
R1, R2, R3 & R4 notes today -in the form of Draft Revisions
to the Ordinance. This is the part that was discussed Mar 08 to
Nov 08. Now I just need to know what parts were CHANGED -
or I would tediously have to compare them to the current
ordinance to know. And I got the April minutes.
5-21-09 Got all 17 maps today -actually 21 altogether . Still
need April meetings and the summary or notes from Mar 08 to
October 08 .
5-21-09 I had information that a summary had been issued -
but I think that had been confused with the Old York Road
Corridor Summary . I have just received some more maps
that I'll download tonight and April's minutes . But
I find it a travesty that the residents don't know what is
happening in their own neighborhoods. Commissioners making
great noises about communication need to communicate vital
information when our property rights are at stake. I have been trying for a year to get
this information . I was told that the
plans were to perhaps try to finalize it by September - that
means that in the summer - with kids home and family vacations
when no one wants to hunker down to business, the hearings would
be held. Can anyone say foul play?
May 17th 09
I have been to about six neighborhoods, talked to many many
people and found not ONE who knew about these re-writes.
May 09 We finally have in our hands some information ---
neighborhoods in Abington are being "circled" and scheduled for
rezoning. Residents need to know about this . Nearly
no one in any of the circled areas I visited was aware their
home was included . Are their Commissioners aware this has
been happening for over a year? Or have they just not
informed their residents? .
December 08 - Commissioner, we find out later have been given a
summary or the R1 R2 R3 R4 changes. We are not afforded the
privilege - we do not find out til May that these exist.
June 08 - April 09 The meetings are open to the public -
but the "report" to the Commissioners at public meetings includes
nothing that informs us about the kinds of changes being
discussed - so people are not alerted to the importance of these
meetings.
6-08 We have not yet gotten word of what changes exactly are
being done but we will try to update you when we know.
Knowing about these changes is an important part in having
a voice in preserving the things we love about our township.
If you and your neighbors are unaware of what changes might
affect your ward, call your
Commissioner
to find out ---- and then
let us know, too,
please so we can update others. You can point your
neighbors here to learn & share more.
May 27th, 2008 was the 3rd Zoning Re-Write meeting . We began to ask
what they were encompassing. An idea of the scope & what
was to be re-zoned.....
_______________________________________
WHEN ARE ZONING REWRITE MEETINGS ?
Regular Zoning Re-write
meetings
are being held 5 pm every the fourth Tuesday .
They are held at the Township Building ( Planning Commission Meetings are
held at 7:30 after these meetings) Please double check
with your Township
(267-536-1000 ) or the website to check for changes, which have
been frequent .
Or ask your
Commissioner .
The final Old York Rd Corridor presentations
was to have been the one Nov 5 2009 - then the language
was to be "tweaked" with the results and it would be expected to
be scheduled for approval by your Commissioners).
_______________________________
Our codebook is in 2 parts
Part 1
Township's
Codebook except for zoning
Part 2
Zoning Portion of Township Codebook
or go to
http://www.abington.org/info/newcodebook.htm
__________________________
Please feel free to
send your information to us and please be sure
to tell us about any information you believe to be
incorrect - write
lel@abingtoncitizens.com
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